Islamabad, Sept 06: The US has denied reports that its invitation to Pakistani Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali to Washington next month, close on the heels of President Pervez Musharraf's New York visit, was aimed at enhancing his standing in domestic politics and to take sides in the military-civil dispute in Pakistan. "We are fully in support of democracy in Pakistan and this is going to be a main focus of the visit but the speculation that Prime Minister Jamali was invited in order to enhance his stature is not true," local daily dawn quoted a State Department official in Washington as saying. Jamali would travel to Washington on Sept 28 to have summit meeting with President George W Bush, ten days after President Pervez Musharraf's visit to New York to address the UN General Assembly. Musharraf would also meet Bush, along with several other dignitaries during the UN session.

The US official said the invitation is "a rescheduling of a visit we planned quite a while ago and it is not intended...As a US intervention in Pakistani democracy. We are doing business with the head of the government in Pakistan."

Jamali was scheduled to visit in may but cancelled it under mounting domestic pressure after us has invaded Iraq. Reports in the us media have said that the us invitation to Jamali to meet bush would strengthen his position at home and make it more difficult for Musharraf to remove him from power. Bureau Report